Jurgen

Branch Cabell James

Description

The darkly comic allegory Jurgen caused quite a stir when it was originally published, with several jurisdictions deeming it obscene and calling for it to be pulled from store shelves. After his wife mysteriously vanishes, middle-aged pawnbroker Jurgen sets off on a not-so-heroic quest to find her, traveling through a series of strange lands in the process.

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776535712
• Langue: English

Extrait

JURGEN
A COMEDY OF JUSTICE
* * *
JAMES BRANCH CABELL
 
*
Jurgen A Comedy of Justice First published in 1922 Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-571-2 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-572-9 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
*
Jurgen:A Comedy of Justice A Foreword 1 - Why Jurgen Did the Manly Thing 2 - Assumption of a Noted Garment 3 - The Garden Between Dawn and Sunrise 4 - The Dorothy Who Did Not Understand 5 - Requirements of Bread and Butter 6 - Showing that Sereda is Feminine 7 - Of Compromises on a Wednesday 8 - Old Toys and a New Shadow 9 - The Orthodox Rescue of Guenevere 10 - Pitiful Disguises of Thragnar 11 - Appearance of the Duke of Logreus 12 - Excursus of Yolande's Undoing 13 - Philosophy of Gogyrvan Gawr 14 - Preliminary Tactics of Duke Jurgen 15 - Of Compromises in Glathion 16 - Divers Imbroglios of King Smoit 17 - About a Cock that Crowed Too Soon 18 - Why Merlin Talked in Twilight 19 - The Brown Man with Queer Feet 20 - Efficacy of Prayer 21 - How Anaïtis Voyaged 22 - As to a Veil They Broke 23 - Shortcomings of Prince Jurgen 24 - Of Compromises in Cocaigne 25 - Cantraps of the Master Philologist 26 - In Time's Hour-Glass 27 - Vexatious Estate of Queen Helen 28 - Of Compromises in Leukê 29 - Concerning Horvendile's Nonsense 30 - Economics of King Jurgen 31 - The Fall of Pseudopolis 32 - Sundry Devices of the Philistines 33 - Farewell to Chloris 34 - How Emperor Jurgen Fared Infernally 35 - What Grandfather Satan Reported 36 - Why Coth was Contradicted 37 - Invention of the Lovely Vampire 38 - As to Applauded Precedents 39 - Of Compromises in Hell 40 - The Ascension of Pope Jurgen 41 - Of Compromises in Heaven 42 - Twelve that Are Fretted Hourly 43 - Postures Before a Shadow 44 - In the Manager's Office 45 - The Faith of Guenevere 46 - The Desire of Anaïtis 47 - The Vision of Helen 48 - Candid Opinions of Dame Lisa 49 - Of the Compromise with Koshchei 50 - The Moment that Did Not Count
Jurgen:A Comedy of Justice
*
"Of JURGEN eke they maken mencioun, That of an old wyf gat his youthe agoon, And gat himselfe a shirte as bright as fyre Wherein to jape, yet gat not his desire In any countrie ne condicioun."
TO
BURTON RASCOE
Before each tarradiddle, Uncowed by sciolists, Robuster persons twiddle Tremendously big fists.
"Our gods are good," they tell us; "Nor will our gods defer Remission of rude fellows' Ability to err."
So this, your JURGEN, travels Content to compromise Ordainments none unravels Explicitly ... and sighs.
*
"Others, with better moderation, do either entertain the vulgarhistory of Jurgen as a fabulous addition unto the true and authenticstory of St. Iurgenius of Poictesme, or else we conceive the literalacception to be a misconstruction of the symbolical expression:apprehending a veritable history, in an emblem or piece of Christianpoesy. And this emblematical construction hath been received by mennot forward to extenuate the acts of saints."
—PHILIP BORSDALE.
"A forced construction is very idle. If readers of The HighHistory of Jurgen do not meddle with the allegory, the allegorywill not meddle with them. Without minding it at all, the whole isas plain as a pikestaff. It might as well be pretended that wecannot see Poussin's pictures without first being told the allegory,as that the allegory aids us in understanding Jurgen ."
—E. NOEL CODMAN.
"Too urbane to advocate delusion, too hale for the bitterness ofirony, this fable of Jurgen is, as the world itself, a book whereineach man will find what his nature enables him to see; which givesus back each his own image; and which teaches us each the lessonthat each of us desires to learn."
—JOHN FREDERICK LEWISTAM.
A Foreword
*
"Nescio quid certè est: et Hylax in limine latrat."
A Foreword: Which Asserts Nothing
In Continental periodicals not more than a dozen articles in allwould seem to have given accounts or partial translations of theJurgen legends. No thorough investigation of this epos can be saidto have appeared in print, anywhere, prior to the publication, in1913, of the monumental Synopses of Aryan Mythology by Angelode Ruiz. It is unnecessary to observe that in this exhaustive digestProfessor de Ruiz has given (VII, p. 415 et sequentia ) asummary of the greater part of these legends as contained in thecollections of Verville and Bülg; and has discussed at length andwith much learning the esoteric meaning of these folk-stories andtheir bearing upon questions to which the "solar theory" of mythexplanation has given rise. To his volumes, and to the pages of Mr.Lewistam's Key to the Popular Tales of Poictesme , must bereferred all those who may elect to think of Jurgen as theresplendent, journeying and procreative sun.
Equally in reading hereinafter will the judicious waive allallegorical interpretation, if merely because the suggestionshitherto advanced are inconveniently various. Thus Vervillefinds the Nessus shirt a symbol of retribution, where Bülg,with rather wide divergence, would have it represent the dangerousgift of genius. Then it may be remembered that Dr. Codman says,without any hesitancy, of Mother Sereda: "This Mother Middle isthe world generally (an obvious anagram of Erda es ), and thisSereda rules not merely the middle of the working-days but themidst of everything. She is the factor of middleness , ofmediocrity, of an avoidance of extremes, of the eternal compromisebegotten by use and wont. She is the Mrs. Grundy of the Léshy; she isComstockery: and her shadow is common-sense." Yet Codman speaks withcertainly no more authority than Prote, when the latter, in his Origins of Fable , declares this epos is "a parable of ... man'svain journeying in search of that rationality and justice which hisnature craves, and discovers nowhere in the universe: and the shirtis an emblem of this instinctive craving, as ... the shadow symbolizesconscience. Sereda typifies a surrender to life as it is, a giving upof man's rebellious self-centredness and selfishness: the anagram being se dare ."
Thus do interpretations throng and clash, and neatly equal thecommentators in number. Yet possibly each one of these unriddlings,with no doubt a host of others, is conceivable: so that wisdom willdwell upon none of them very seriously.
With the origin and the occult meaning of the folklore of Poictesmethis book at least is in no wise concerned: its unambitious aim hasbeen merely to familiarize English readers with the Jurgen epos forthe tale's sake. And this tale of old years is one which, by rarefortune, can be given to English readers almost unabridged, in viewof the singular delicacy and pure-mindedness of the Jurgen mythos:in all, not more than a half-dozen deletions have seemed expedient(and have been duly indicated) in order to remove such sparse andunimportant outcroppings of mediæval frankness as might conceivablyoffend the squeamish.
Since this volume is presented simply as a story to be read forpastime, neither morality nor symbolism is hereinafter educed, andno "parallels" and "authorities" are quoted. Even the gaps are leftunbridged by guesswork: whereas the historic and mythologicalproblems perhaps involved are relinquished to those reallythoroughgoing scholars whom erudition qualifies to deal with suchtopics, and tedium does not deter....
In such terms, and thus far, ran the Foreword to the first issues ofthis book, whose later fortunes have made necessary the lengtheningof the Foreword with a postscript. The needed addition—this much atleast chiming with good luck—is brief. It is just that fragmentwhich some scholars, since the first appearance of this volume, haveasserted—upon what perfect frankness must describe as notindisputable grounds—to be a portion of the thirty-second chapterof the complete form of La Haulte Histoire de Jurgen .
And in reply to what these scholars assert, discretion says nothing.For this fragment was, of course, unknown when the High History wasfirst put into English, and there in consequence appears, here,little to be won either by endorsing or denying its claims toauthenticity. Rather, does discretion prompt the appending, withoutany gloss or scholia, of this fragment, which deals with
The Judging of Jurgen.
Now a court was held by the Philistines to decide whether or no KingJurgen should be relegated to limbo. And when the judges wereprepared for judging, there came into the court a great tumblebug,rolling in front of him his loved and properly housed young ones.With the creature came pages, in black and white, bearing a sword, astaff and a lance.
This insect looked at Jurgen, and its pincers rose erect in horror.The bug cried to the three judges, "Now, by St. Anthony! this Jurgenmust forthwith be relegated to limbo, for he is offensive and lewdand lascivious and indecent."
"And how can that be?" says Jurgen.
"You are offensive," the bug replied, "because this page has a swordwhich I choose to say is not a sword. You are lewd because that pagehas a lance which I prefer to think is not a lance. You arelascivious because yonder page has a staff which I elect to declareis not a staff. And finally, you are indecent for reasons of which adescription would be objectionable to me, and which therefore I mustdecline to reveal to anybody."
"Well, that sounds logical," says Jurgen, "but still, at the sametime, it would be no worse for an admixture of common-sense. For yougentlemen can see for yourselves, by consid